I discovered the site at Warren Hill, Perham Down, near Andover last year when I read that it supported a colony of silver spotted skippers. It is roughly an hour's trip away but nearer than my previous location of Aston Rowant. Having made a note on where to find the silver spotted skippers following last year's visit, I headed straight up the main track and then turned off to a scrubby area to the left to begin my search. These skippers are one of the later butterflies to emerge and consequently I tend to look for them at the start of August.
I had arrived fairly early in the day - around 930, but already it was quite warm and I soon spotted my first butterflies. At first I only saw meadow browns - plenty of them, together with a few gatekeepers and small heath butterflies, but then I noticed a smaller orangey brown butterfly fly at good speed and land on the path in front of me - I had found my first silver spotted skipper of the year! I saw only a few more although a recent report had recorded about 25, however, I did not explore the whole of the site.
A bit later on, I found another 'first for the year' - two chalkhill blue butterflies were fluttering about close to the ground, occasionally settling for a short time. I also found one female chalkhill blue and a common blue.
It hasn't been a great year for butterflies, and I am a few down on last year's total. I did, however, manage to find a purple hairstreak in my daughter's back garden last week. I shall hopefully look for brown hairstreaks next week, but it remains to be seen if I see the migrants (clouded yellow and painted lady), sightings of which seem to be few and far between. I also wonder if the long tailed blue will be seen at all this year.
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